Of Hearts and Draughts
by Randel
Summary: A short conversation piece.


_Disclamier: __Magic: The Gathering is owned by Wizards of the Coast. This is a bit of fanfiction based upon the rules of magic defined in the game. No monetary reward is expected nor would be accepted for this work. This fanfiction is my original work and may not be reproduced without permission. I can be contacted at __Randelm@hotmail.com._

Of Hearts and Draughts

The sun shone in a sky that was a clear cold blue. From horizon to horizon neither cloud nor bird stirred. No wind blew allowing the sun to warm the thick forest of dark green pines. Snow covered much of the ground and sparkled under the intensity of the sun, but the air was still too cold to allow the tiny ice crystals to change to water. Sitting with his back to the largest tree on the edge of the forest where there was no snow, a man known in these parts simply as 'the Wizard' watched the animals below him intensely. Resting on his knee was a leather bound book. The page before him was filled with the simple block print that was the Wizard's preference. Occasionally, he'd make another note in his book. 

As the sun reached its zenith, the Wizard made one final note, closed the book and sat back with a sigh. His research here was finally complete. He was not an old man, as his moniker might suggest. Leastwise, he did not appear to be an old man. But with wizards, who could really say? He wore a plain brown tunic of finely spun linen and wool and trousers of worn leather. His faces was covered in dark brown stubble as he'd neglected to shave in the past several days and the equally brown hair upon his head was beginning to look shaggy. In fact, unless one had seen it for themselves, it was unlikely that any would believe this man was a wizard, despite what the villagers called him. 

A moment later a young boy appeared, cresting the small hillock at the edge of the forest where the wizard sat. He held on one arm, a basket covered with a checkered cloth and in the other, a bundle wrapped in brown paper. 

The Wizard nodded to the boy as he spread the cloth upon the ground and began laying out the lunch his mother had prepared. The Wizard began to eat and the boy sat on his heels, watching eagerly. It wasn't so much that the Wizard was interesting when he ate. In fact he at much like anyone else, with perhaps a bit more in the way of manners. No the boy was simply eager for the man to finish his meal. The Wizard disliked talking while eating but enjoyed doing so on a full belly, and conversations with the Wizard were always interesting. The conversation would be especially so today considering the news that had reached the village and the letters that rested in the paper wrapped bundle. 

But the Wizard was taking his time today. Meticulously buttering his bread, and sipping at his spiced wine, and eating his cookies only one at a time. 

The Wizard wiped a few crumbs from his stubble and suddenly broke his own custom. "You seem rather anxious today." 

"Word is, there's war in the south," the boy leapt at the chance to start conversation early. 

The Wizard raised an eyebrow. "Look there," he said, pointing to the animals he'd been studying. "Tell me what you see." 

The boy suppressed a sigh and looked where the Wizard indicated. "They're antelope sir." 

"Indeed. Tell me more." 

The boy continued to look at them, but they appeared only be a small heard of antelope. Nothing particularly impressive and nothing that the boy would have thought a Wizard would have wanted to spend nearly half a year studying. But half a year's worth of conversation with a wizard had changed the way the boy thought. He was quite used to seeing the animals, they were commonplace to the area and a common source of food to the inhabitants. What about them might an outsider find interesting? 

"They're very graceful, sir." 

The Wizard smiled and he opened his book to the first page which was still blank. "Yes, they are." He wrote something on that page and closed the book. "Graceful. Very good, lad." 

The boy smiled at the praise, though he wasn't entirely sure what it had been for. By then the Wizard had finished his meal and was setting black and red stones upon the checkered cloth. 

"Care for a game while I open my mail?" the Wizard offered. 

"Yes sir," the boy replied eagerly. The game had very simple rules, anyone could learn them. But actually playing the game required much more thought, and forethought, than the boy had ever devoted to anything else in his life. He sometimes laid awake at night replaying the games he had lost the wizard in his mind. The moves he could have made, the moves he should have made. The boy had never won a game against the Wizard, but the matches were closer than before. 

The wizard opened the bundle of mail and began reading the first letter. "So, war in the south you say?" 

The boy nodded as he considered his first move. It was a favorite tactic of the Wizard to talk to the boy during a game of Draughts. At first, the boy had thought that he Wizard was trying to distract and confuse him, and to an extent, he was. However, the boy had come to realize recently that it wasn't a distraction tactic the Wizard was applying, but a teaching technique instead. The Wizard had much to tech, if one paid close enough attention. The other children teased the boy fro running the errands of a crazy foreign wizard, but the boy was fascinated by the different way the man thought. 

"Yes, Rumor says that Gaidhiel Skypaws has breached his truce with King Tenmead." The boy moved one of his red stones. 

"Mmm," replied the Wizard as he moved one of his black stones. 

The boy responded with a quick move before continuing. "But I don't think so." The Wizard moved a piece and the boy thought only a moment before moving his own.

"You're getting better," commented the Wizard. 

"I think that King Tenmead wants the resources of Lord Skypaws' forest."

"Do you now?" mumbled the Wizard as he moved another piece and started reading another letter. 

The boy nodded emphatically. "Yes sir, I do." He then captured three of the Wizard's pieces with one move. "I think that King Tenmead never meant the treaty to last and had lied about Lord Skypaws. Lord Tenmead hates the Cat Warriors 'cause they're not human. He wants control of the forest so he can harvest the lumber and make even more money."

The Wizard responded by capturing two of the boy's pieces. "And what makes you think that you are correct in this and the rumors are wrong?"

The boy thought on the question for some time before answering. He captured one of the Wizards pieces and lost two during that thoughtful silence. 

"Two reasons," said the boy at last. "First, King Tenmead said similar things about he Merpeople along the Blue Coast. And now he controls the Pearl Guild. Second, it's King Tenmead's heralds who spread this news, they probably say whatever the King tells them too." 

"Do you think the king would lie?" the Wizard asked as he captured another two of the boy's stones. 

He frowned. "King's aren't supposed to lie, are they?"

The Wizard cocked his head. "I don't know that I've ever read that rule before."

"But, in all the old stories, the good kings don't lie. They protect the people."

"That's true," the Wizard agreed. "But those are just stories. Right?"

The moved a piece. "I'm not so sure. But I do think that King Tenmead is lying. He likes having more money and he doesn't care if he has to cut down the whole forest or kill all the Cat Warriors to do it."

The Wizard set aside his mail and studied the game. "I used to believe that I had only one heart and without it, I would die. Then I realized I had a second, perhaps more vital heart. The Sun. For without the Sun, I would most certainly die, as would all who inhabit this land and the land itself. It would be easier to replace the heart of my body, than the heart of the land."

The boy looked at the Wizard, but did not say anything. 

For a long time, the Wizard simply stared at the stones laid out upon the cloth, his expression somber. The boy took the time to think on what the Wizard had just said. The Sun was vital to all life upon the land as anybody knew. Was Lord Skypaws' forest like that? Surely everybody wouldn't die if the king cut the forest down? Except maybe the cat warriors would. In face, it was almost certain they would for they would not give up their forest without a fight and the king would consider them traitors, executing every last one of them. It was the same with the Merpeople. As more and more of the king's men harvested the pears and fish of the area, it became uninhabitable by the native people. The boy began to understand the Wizard's somber expression. 

Suddenly, the Wizard's face broke into a huge grin. "Stalemate."

The boy blinked in surprise. "What sir?"

The Wizard pointed at the game of Draughts. "Stalemate. Well done lad."

The boy studied the game and soon found that the Wizard was correct. He had played the man to a draw. 

"But what about King Tenmead?"

"What about him?"

"Well, you're a Wizard, aren't you going to do something?"

The Wizard stood up, dusting himself off. "Is it my place to interfere? What makes me right? Why should I be able to tell people what to do?"

"I..." the boy faltered. Then he looked into the forest and thought of the sun. "Because it's hard to replace the heart of the land."

The Wizard smiled again. "Aye. That it is lad. Come, let us speak to your mother about an apprenticeship. It's time you did some traveling."


End file.
